Existing networks do not allow nodes to request or allow a hub to grant best-effort scheduled access, wherein an allocation interval is scheduled for a node ahead of time and then granted on a best-efforts basis in real time. Instead, existing networks use strictly scheduled access intervals.
An example system for providing a unified framework of non-contention access methods, including scheduled, polled and posted access, and for providing different levels of tradeoffs between power consumption and strictly scheduled medium access for use in a Body Area Network (BAN) or in any other network or system, is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/697,105, filed Jan. 29, 2010, and titled “Access and Power Management for Centralized Networks” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety herein.